Users of computing devices connected to a network (e.g. internet, instant messaging, etc.) often use fictitious screen names as unique handles (“screen names”). Users use screen names to identify themselves to other users and online services. An individual user may have multiple screen names. Screen names may be used in online chatting (e.g. instant messenger, chat rooms, etc.), social networking websites (e.g. blogs, MySpace™, Facebook™, etc.) e-commerce/online marketplaces (e.g. eBay, Amazon, etc.) etc.
In addition to acting as unique handles for online users, screen names may also protect the anonymity of the users using them. The true identity of an online user is often masked by the screen name he/she is using. Information pertaining to the true identity of the individual behind a screen name may be limited to the information provided by that individual (which, by the nature of the internet, is often scant and may not be truthful.) An individual may have one or more screen names for every online service they use. For example, a user may create multiple personas in an online-auction website, each persona identified by a different screen name. In this example, other users interacting with the various screen names/personas of this one user may be unaware they are dealing with the same person.
Targeted advertising is often targeted to individual users based on a variety of attributes known about the user (e.g. the user's demographic information, shopping habits, credit worthiness, etc.) A fictitious screen name may mask the real identity of the user using the screen name, thus preventing content-targeted advertising from reaching the user while using his/her fictitious screen name. In addition, at present there is no way for advertisers to correlate the disparate screen names used by a user, such that all attributes of individual screen names are known to an advertiser.